New healthy lunch guidelines seem to be working

Saturday

Aug 31, 2013 at 8:54 AMAug 31, 2013 at 9:02 AM

By Elaine Thompson TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

While some schools across the country are dropping the new stringent federal healthy meals requirements because students don't like the food, Massachusetts schools and students in general are adjusting just fine, mainly because of years of planning. Also, Massachusetts requires all public schools to offer the healthy meals.

The 2010 federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act took effect last fall.

"We got ahead of this and started providing training to school districts on the new meal pattern about seven years ago," said JC Considine, spokesman for the state Department of Early and Secondary Education.

Some Central Massachusetts districts, including Worcester, Fitchburg and Quaboag Regional, which have a high percentage of low-income students, said it would be financial suicide to drop out of the national lunch program, if it were allowed. They said meal prices would be drastically higher for every student if they did not get the reimbursements.

Representatives of the three districts also said they have not had complaints from students about the fruits, vegetables and whole grains required under the new healthier federal lunch guidelines, because the foods have already been offered for a few years.

Janice L. King, director of school nutrition for the Quaboag Regional School District, which serves Warren and West Brookfield, said she expects the district-wide free-and-reduced population of 42 percent to increase this school year. She said the reimbursements the district receives for lunches served to those students subsidize the cost of meals for paying students.

She said the current lunch price is $2.50. The district is reimbursed $3.28 for each free lunch, $2.88 for each reduced-priced lunch, and 63 cents for each non-discounted lunch.

She said students have been served healthier foods, for example pizza made with whole grain crust, since 2004.

The key to having students eat the healthier foods is to make them inviting, she said. Last year, Italian paninis with mozzarella, basil and other fresh ingredients were introduced. This year, healthy Indian and Japanese foods, including sushi, will be on the menu.

She said the district does not have an Indian or Japanese population, but cultural foods help broaden students' horizons.

The district is working with Boston-based Monsoon Kitchens to learn how to make healthy and interesting recipes. The company is hosting a sampling day, including an Indian dancer, for students at the school on Sept. 18.

"Schools that anticipated changes in the nutrition guidelines and offered new menu options to their students over a period of years have seen invisible transitions and acceptance with their students," Ms. King said.

In the Webster school district, 56 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunches. Superintendent Barbara Malkas said the healthier menus have not had much of an impact at the younger grade levels, but the impact at the secondary grades has been significant.

Ted Avlas, the business manager for the Webster schools, said the district will have to increase lunch prices next year because of a significant loss in revenue from students who stopped getting school lunches after the new guidelines were put in place. Current lunch prices are $1.75 for elementary and middle school students, and $2 for junior-senior high school students.

Last school year, there was a 23 percent drop in paid lunches, amounting to 24 percent, or $45,000, in lost revenue. The district also saw a reduction of 3.5 percent in free and 10.6 percent in reduced-priced lunches, he said.

"It has been a mixed response with some students not eating all of the food provided and others not getting enough food," Ms. Malkas said in an email. "The 100-pound 9th-grade girl and the 180-pound senior boy get the same amount of food. So the guidelines did not take into account the varying caloric needs of the individual students." The caloric limit is 850.

Mr. Considine of the state Department of Early and Secondary Education, said the department works closely with the John C. Stalker Institute at Framingham State University, which recently hosted school nutritional directors at a summit to discuss and present workshops on the new standards. The education department also offers a recipe tool and menu planner to help ease the transition: www.johnstalkerinstitute.org.

Mr. Considine said the agency has not identified any school districts that are not following the nutritional standards. The state will begin the new review cycle this year, he said.

Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokesman for the Maryland-based School Nutrition Association, said agency representatives were surprised by news reports earlier this week that said some schools around the country are dropping out of the National School Lunch Program because students are rejecting the healthier menus, causing cafeterias to lose money.

She said that in a survey the association did online in June and July, 1 percent of the 521 school nutrition directors responding said they planned to have a school drop the national lunch program, and 3.3 percent said they are considering having a school drop the program. She said that while most states, unlike Massachusetts, do not require all schools to participate in the program, about 94 percent of all public and private schools in the country do.

Schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program are required to offer free and reduced-priced meals and meet the nutrition standards. In return, they receive reimbursement of about $2.93 for free lunches and $2.53 for reduced-price lunches. They also get about 28 cents for each meal served to a paying student. She said the idea is that there is a cost to the district to run the lunch program.

Wealthy school districts with very few, if any, non-paying students have less incentive to participate in the national program because they do not depend on the reimbursements. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, has provided suggestions to schools on feeding very active students. Schools can make larger portions of fruits, vegetables and milk available for those students.

Contact Elaine Thompson at elaine.thompson@telegram.com

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